


Delusion

by sodaschemes



Series: The Family Tree [3]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Angst, Burns, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Dewey Duck Needs a Hug, Drowning, FebuWhump2021, Heavy Angst, Huey Duck Needs a Hug, Hurt Louie Duck, Intense, Kidnapping, Louie Duck Needs a Hug, Possessive Behavior, Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:07:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29965422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sodaschemes/pseuds/sodaschemes
Summary: Doofus wants to have more than justonefriend-present. He gets his wish.
Relationships: Dewey Duck & Huey Duck & Louie Duck
Series: The Family Tree [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2143473
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	Delusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings will be updated as the fic progresses. Read at your own risk.

“What do you want with us?” Huey asked, cautious. 

Doofus smiled, like he was thrilled to have been asked. “Llewellyn is  _ so _ lovely, and he just makes such a wonderful friend-present. It only makes sense that I should have the full set.”

Dewey raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “The full  _ set _ ? What are you, some rare Barbie collector?”

Doofus narrowed his eyes, but didn’t respond immediately.

“Dewey,” Louie warned.

Dewey, like the reckless idiot he was, waved him off.

“ _ As I was saying _ ,” Doofus continued, “I wanted the whole set, so I  _ got _ the whole set.”

“Ooh, do we come with accessories?” Dewey asked, leaning forward like he was really interested. For all Huey knew, maybe he was. Dewey was like that.

“Shut up,” Louie hissed, glaring at Dewey. Huey shared the sentiment. He didn’t know  _ what _ Doofus would do if they annoyed him enough.

“What is he gonna do, sick his butler on us?” Dewey asked, rolling his eyes. “This is child’s play.”

Huey resisted the urge to point out the fact that they  _ were _ , in fact, children, making his point meaningless, but it didn’t seem too helpful right now. 

“Dewey,  _ stop _ ,” Louie insisted.

Doofus glared at Dewey, but Dewey wasn’t even looking at him. He was way too relaxed about this whole thing. They didn’t know what Doofus was capable of. Dewey was just seeing this another fun adventure where they got kidnapped by some guy who was all bark and no bite for like, thirty minutes maximum. Which, to be fair, did happen quite often, but this felt different.

“You’re not being a very good friend, Dewford,” Doofus said, looking legitimately disappointed in him. “I expected better of you.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.”

Huey looked at him, concerned, but Dewey didn’t acknowledge it. It seemed like there were quite a few things he wasn’t acknowledging, actually. “I think you need a little trip to my  _ honey bin _ ,” Doofus said, and though Huey had no idea  _ what _ that was, the threat was clear.

Dewey cocked his head to the side. “You mean money bin.”

“No, I don’t.”

Louie went pale, and that was enough for Huey to intervene. “He didn’t mean it!” he cried, nervously glancing between a continuously carefree Dewey and the rich psychopath.

“Too late! Come, dear Dewford,” Doofus said, releasing him from the bracelet’s hold and grabbing him firmly by the arm. “You can think about how to be a better  _ friend _ while you’re in there.”

Dewey turned to point a finger-gun at his brothers, clicking his tongue. 

“He’s going to get us killed,” Huey mumbled illy.

Louie shook his head, tugging at his bracelet as he did so. “He won’t kill us,” he mumbled miserably. “It will be worse.”

Huey looked at him in alarm, but Louie didn’t opt to explain further.

“Okay, we’ve got to get out of here,” he said decisively, a new energy coursing through him now that they weren’t in the same room as their captor. He squirmed, trying to get his wrist out, but just like Louie, he had no luck. “Do you by chance have any butter?”

Louie stared at him. “Butter.”

“If we get all buttery, we might be able to get the bracelets off without dislocating our thumbs!”

“Oh, of  _ course _ . Yes, Huey, let me just grab that  _ butter  _ I carry with me everywhere!” Louie said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“It’s the only plan I have!” Huey cried, doing his best to stay calm. They had no clue what was happening to Dewey right now, and based on everything that had happened since they’d been captured, he got the feeling Doofus was seriously unstable. 

He was scared, and he didn’t think well under pressure.

Very, very faintly, they heard Dewey scream.

“Oh god,” Louie whispered.

“We need to help him!” Huey shouted, frantically yanking at his arm, like the whole thing would just come loose if he tried hard enough. His arm was already getting sore, but he ignored it. “This thing has got to have a fault somewhere! Or an off switch!”

“The only off switch is the remote that Doofus keeps  _ on him _ !” Louie said, grunting as he tried to get free.

“And we can’t break them,” Huey panted, slumping over as he caught his breath. “What are we gonna  _ do _ ?”

“ _ You _ won’t be doing  _ anything _ .”

Huey froze mid-yank, slowly lowering his arm again. Doofus was standing in the doorway, Dewey beside him. 

Dewey didn’t look so lighthearted anymore. His feathers were all disheveled and sticky looking, and he was just staring into space blankly. Huey had no idea what the hell Doofus had done, but he definitely didn’t want to know. It was  _ hard _ to shut Dewey up, even when his life was threatened.

Actually, maybe he did want to know. Anyone who hurt his brother was going to  _ pay _ .

Dewey was placed with a level of great care, much like a doll, or an action figure, back where he’d been before, between Huey and Louie. Both of them shuddered.

“You have to let us go,” Huey said, hoping to God he could reason with him. “You can’t just keep us here!”

“But I can,” Doofus replied easily.

Louie gave Huey a desperate sort of look, like he was trying to silently project his own thoughts into Huey’s brain. He tried to focus on it, on the off chance that twin sense was real, but he wasn’t getting anything. Huh.

He turned his focus back to Doofus. He knew he was on thin ice, but Doofus was just a kid, like them. “Come on,” he said, “we would be happy to be your friends!” he ignored the quiet “no we wouldn’t,” from Louie, plowing forward anyway. “You don’t have to kidnap us to get that! Don’t you think you may be overreacting just a little bit?”

“ _ Overreacting _ ?” Doofus shouted, overreacting.

“No! No, I didn’t mean you were overreacting!” Huey cried, attempting to backtrack. “Even if you are kind of crazy —  _ no _ wait I didn’t mean that!” Oh boy, he was only burying himself deeper and deeper with every word he spoke. Why couldn’t he have been born with Louie’s smoothness?

Doofus did  _ not _ look happy, and Huey let out a tiny squeak, looking side to side like a magical exit would appear before them.

Dewey snapped to life, purposefully placing himself in front of Huey. “Don’t touch him,” he growled.

“Dewey, no!” Huey said, doing his best to shove past him. “I’m not letting you get hurt  _ again _ !”

“And I’m not letting you get hurt at  _ all _ !” Dewey insisted.

“How sweet,” Doofus said, and Huey honestly couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be mocking or sincere. Doofus was… well, he was Doofus, and he had a very… interesting way of going about things. “You’re coming with me,” he continued, ignoring Dewey entirely and leading Huey towards the door.

“No!” Dewey begged.

“I’ll be fine, Dew,” Huey said, smiling as best he could in an attempt to reassure him. It didn’t seem to be working well.

Doofus pulled him from the room.

“What’s the honey bin?” He asked, tripping over himself as he tried to keep up.

“Oh, you won’t be going there,” Doofus said dismissively. He looked like Dewey did when he was trying to hide some silly secret, and Huey didn’t like it.

They ended up outside, at the top of the treehouse.

“Servants!” Doofus snapped. “Prepare the gravy bath!”

Huey stared at him blankly. “The gravy what now?”

“You’ll see,” he replied gleefully. Not a normal type of glee, of course — Huey was quickly learning that there was very little about this kid that was  _ normal _ (and not in the type of way that Huey wasn’t “normal”, either). It was worrisome.

“The gravy bath,” the butler echoed hauntedly. Huey, his concern growing, could only look at him in confusion. 

“The gravy bath,” Doofus began, “is one of my  _ favorite _ pastimes.” Well that couldn’t be good. “And if it doesn’t work, I’m sure there are…  _ other _ methods of teaching you how to be a better friend.”

The maid and butler dragged out a bathtub (from where, Huey had  _ no _ idea), scurrying away the moment it was (presumably) in place.

“Seriously,  _ what _ is a gravy bath?” Huey asked nervously. He would have tried to back away had Doofus not been gripping his arm so tightly.

Said duckling shoved him into the empty tub, and Huey grunted in pain as he landed. Still, this was an  _ open _ tub, which meant it might have been his only chance to flee.

He flailed about, nearly throwing himself over the opposite edge of the tub. The butler forced him back in, but Huey didn’t stop struggling, even as his bracelet activated. Doofus grabbed his free hand tightly, pulling a second bracelet from his pocket and slipping it over Huey’s wrist.

With both of his hands now glued to the bottom of the tub, Huey was  _ stuck _ .

The two adults then proceeded to wheel out what looked like a giant… gravy boat. And when he said giant, he meant  _ giant _ . It looked big enough to function as an  _ actual _ boat. He was pretty sure he, Dewey, Louie,  _ and _ Webby could fit in there if they squeezed.

“Wonderful! Servants, you’re dismissed.”

They all but  _ ran _ to the elevator, barely missing a beat. As scared as he was, Huey couldn’t blame them.

“What are you going to do?” he asked again, looking up at the boat nervously. Was that steam coming off of it?

Doofus’s beak twitched into a smile, and he pulled out a small blue remote.

Huey began squirming again, his stomach churning in anxiety for what could be coming. Doofus wasn’t actually  _ that _ crazy, was he? 

He got his answer when a small beep sounded from the remote. The gravy boat tipped, and something hot (very,  _ very _ hot), poured over Huey’s head.

He shouted, fighting against the restraints with every ounce of his willpower. It  _ burned _ . And it was spreading, a continuous stream of the stuff (was this  _ actual _ gravy?) raining down on him.

It was splattering onto Doofus’s clothes, but he didn’t even seem to  _ mind _ .

“Turn it off!” Huey begged, crying out at the pain. It was a thousand times worse than any other burn he’d ever received, and there was  _ nothing  _ he could do to get away. 

It began to pool around him, burning his hands. He couldn’t. Get. Away.

“Please,” he sobbed, breath hitching and unable to stop the tears.

It was like the time one of his particularly horrible bullies had attempted to shove him into the fire at a Junior Woodchucks camp out, but so much worse. 

Not only was this actually successful, but he would have been pulled from that fire in seconds had he actually been pushed in.  _ This _ was constant, never ending pain, thick liquid fire pouring over him like molten lava.

It was in his eyes, now, blinding and burning and pain pain  _ pain _ .

A hand grabbed him, and suddenly it was tenderly wiping the fire from his eyes, jerking him forward so it streamed down his back instead.

Huey cried even harder. 

All he could taste was the gravy, burning his feathers, his tongue, his  _ everything _ . 

It hurt. So bad.

The tub was nearly filled, the lower half of his body completely submerged in the stuff. Finally, after what must have been eternity, the stream dripped to a stop.

He let himself hope, for a meager few seconds, that it was over. But hope was hard to come by when one was literally sitting in a tub of burning gravy. 

Doofus placed his hand on Huey’s head, tangling his fingers in Huey’s hair for a moment — wait.  _ When had his hat come off? _ — before abruptly gripping it so hard that Huey couldn’t keep another sob in. His head was shoved violently down, and suddenly his entire body was on fire all at once.

He couldn’t breathe. He was  _ choking  _ on the stuff. No air. No nothing. Just heat, just pain, just the hand forcefully holding him under.

He didn’t know how Doofus could stand to have even his  _ hand  _ touching it.

His head went blurry. Was blurry the right word? He couldn’t remember. Everything was heavy and floaty and — he was dragged back up. 

Huey coughed and sputtered, taking in as much air as he could manage. Everything hurt.

The bracelets must have been released at some point, because then he was being lifted from the tub, gravy spilling over the side. He was too weak to even attempt to fight back as Doofus dragged him back inside. 

Distantly, he wondered who was going to clean up the gravy that was getting all over the carpets. Probably that maid and butler. He felt kind of bad for them.

The gravy that still coated his feathers, at the very least, wasn’t too unbearable anymore. But the burns he’d received  _ were _ , and he had the suspicion that he wouldn’t be receiving medical attention. He sniffled.

He felt so  _ gross _ , so… wrong.

“Wait,” he gasped, still struggling to breathe properly. “My — my hat,” he said, “and my guidebook, can I have them back?”

“Oh, those? I’m afraid the gravy ruined them,” Doofus replied, in such a casual manner that it took Huey a moment to actually process it.

“What?” he choked out, his heart dropping in his chest.

He was dragged through the door, his mind reeling. Louie and Dewey audibly gasped at the sight of him. He could only be thankful that the gravy managed to cover the burn marks that would no doubt be underneath.

“What did you do to him?” Louie asked nervously as Huey was placed back in his spot. 

Doofus smiled. “Don’t fret, my sweet,” he said, wrapping his arms around Louie in a way that made Huey want to vomit. “He’ll be fine. And as for you… well, I have something  _ special _ planned for  _ you _ .”

It seemed, thank goodness, that he didn’t plan to act on whatever it was right now, because with that, he released Louie, spun towards the door, and left them alone.

Huey wiped his eyes with his free hand. They  _ needed _ to get out of here.


End file.
